The Prelude…

 

In 1994, four years after the Hubble telescope was launched, deep space telemetry detected an anomaly in the far reaches of space. An object one quarter of the size of our own moon, apparently moving with complete disregard to regular quantum physics, some forty-two million light years away. It was reported, and subsequently filed away as ‘nothing to be concerned with’.

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Twelve years later, a student studying Advanced Astrophysics at a well-recognized university in America, came upon this data and researched this phenomenon as part of her graduating thesis. During petulant arguments with senior scientific bodies, she came to discover yet more anomalies with regards to the object’s behaviour. Most notably the distance it now appeared to be from Earth. Where it was completely ignoring the laws of physics in 1994, at a distance of 42 million lights years away, in 2016 it seemed to be continuing to flaunt these apparent rules a mere 23 million light years away. This was again filed away as ‘nothing to be concerned with’.

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In 2021, another student of the now ‘Advanced Scientific Research University’, or ASR as they were now known, studied this anomaly once again. In his studies, he concluded two highly disturbing details: first, the object was now only 12 million light years away, and second, it was most comprehensively on an intentional, direct collision course with our solar system. After numerous meetings, this was not filed away as ‘nothing to be concerned with’. It actually was raised to the level of ‘something to be concerned with’. Again, the politician’s at the time decided that this was of a lesser priority to the people of Earth than their own personal gains and ambitions.

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Two years later, Conrad Turlesque educated the supposed scientific experts. The cleverest man on the planet, happened upon the research, and where previously the details had been highly disturbing, he now laid out, plain and simple, the terrifying facts. The object was now 5 or 6 light years away, on a direct course to physically destroy our solar system. In an almost American Pool fashion, this object was going to ricochet off Neptune, before literally flying through Jupiter, demolishing the gas giant and thus devastating the gravitational balance of the entire solar system before directly impacting planet Earth. Effectively ending all life in the system, and any chance of regrowth after. At this point the subject was raised from ‘something to be concerned about’ to ‘^%!$”&^!%£&*!£^’ (Loosely translated: Oh shit, we all gonna die!)

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Remarkably, most petty disagreements between countries, governments, and even religious factions were put aside in the years following this discovery. The fact that we as a planet had been targeted, apparently so many years prior, became the one unifying factor in settling uncomfortable differences. After much apologizing to each other, the nations with the capacity began working on a strategy to defend ourselves against this, most appalling attack…

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Part 1...

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“Erm, Boss? Something ain’t quite right here”.

 

Sergeant Phillips was never in all his now extended military career known for exaggeration, flippancy or indeed any form of inappropriate remarks, so a statement of such magnitude, in such circumstance, and such an unreasonable distance past normality, was met with a very real sense of crushing reality.

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Since the ‘Undefined Dangerous Object’ had been established as a ‘very real threat’ in 2025, an unprecedented amount of cooperation between the major superpowers on Earth led to the establishment of a previously unthought-of level of tech capability. NASA, Tesla and every other space race establishment combined to create a vehicle capable of reaching the UDO well before it could decimate our solar system, with total military capability at the crews’ disposal.

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Given the distance and time, the Russians offered their previously secret equivalent of cryo technology. Some would say that their familiarity with freezing temperatures should not have made this a surprise, but it was not exactly like the Alien or Demolition Man glamour. Indeed it was painful and undignified at best, but it did mean that the carefully, handpicked crew of 18-20 year olds that boarded the Expiris should only be in their late 30s to early 40s upon arrival at the UDO.

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This was not going to be like the other Hollywood blockbuster ‘Armageddon’ with some redneck, oil drillers saving the world either. This would require actual military personnel, with specific training to firstly attempt to establish a dialogue with whatever or whoever had decided to send this chunk of rock our way, and if that failed, find a way to redirect the object to a less destructive course.

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The Expiris was a testament to humanity and the scientific community. It was an incredible piece of engineering. Technologically so advanced she made even the best scientific brains hurt after a while. She was also, sadly, a butt ugly ship. Built to literal requirements, but with no time for looks or subtlety. The President of ASR at the time of launch was unfortunately caught on camera asking “did they intentionally build it that fucked up looking? Or is this some plan to put whoever they are off from coming here?” A harsh observation, but to the unified construction team that built her, and to every single ‘nerd’ on the planet that watched on tv, or streamed it on their various devices, she was a thing of pure beauty. The first man made spaceship, capable of actually doing what all the Sci Fi films had been promising us since the 1960s was off and doing ‘Space Stuff’.

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Incredibly, after a 270 year flight, The Expiris successfully intercepted the UDO as was originally planned by the genius’s, now long dead back on Earth, and despite the fact that the AI that had been managing the systems for such a long time had started going a little bit bonkers, all key personnel were gradually thawed and woken up, in time for the preprogrammed landing.

During the descent to what was now quite clearly a cross between a large asteroid and a small moon, Major T Aspers made a few key decisions.  Firstly, he would drop the ‘T’ from his name, as he didn’t really have a middle name, and claiming that it was a reference to a certain Star Trek Captain by his parents, really wasn’t doing him any favours anymore.

Secondly, he planned on full on bollocking the Russian who said he would ‘come out looking the same as he went in’. Half bald and what was left being fully grey haired was not part of the deal!

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And finally, after repeated interactions with the AI of Expiris, Major Aspers established that once again, the time frame had shifted beyond regular physics. Where upon arrival there should have been close to a millennia of travel available to adjust the course or intention of the object, The Expiris, now landed on the UDO, was just outside the Sol Solar system, still on a direct impact course with one intergalactic giant, before devastating an even bigger one, on its way to decimate any life remaining on the 3rd rock from the sun.

In order to keep a semblance of normality, Major Aspers kept a 12 hour day/night regime, which despite numerous complaints was actually well received by everyone except the science staff, who claimed ‘to work all the hours anyway’. Briefly, and foolishly, ignoring the science staff, we go back to the Sergeants’ comment.

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Having been ‘on the ground’ for what was now officially 2 days, Phillips had more than good enough reason to raise the alarm. For an astronomical body made of pure rock, this particular ‘bit o shit’ was not behaving in any way it should be. And there were the random anomalies that were full on freaking out the troops. Antennas that had been set up and established as working fine suddenly breaking down and being found, fallen over on their side two hours later. The pipeline track laid for simple hygiene, also failing after a brief time.

The most concerning, which Aspers kept as long as possible away from the team, was the fact that the landing feet of The Expiris were now embedded in the ground. Not just sunk in, but fully embedded in the ground, with the rock forming back over the top of the landing feet…